After all the crazy, leopard print outlandishness of the last collection she designed for HM, Donatella Versace scaled back her designs for the Versace for HM cruise collection.

RELATED: Still Want Versace For HM? It’s Getting Returned To Stores

The collection, which will start selling online in countries where HM has e-commerce on January 19, is summery and fresh looking with lots of pastels and a fabric print that looks like what we can only describe as a Warholesque fruit salad. In a press release, Versace herself said she wanted to do something completely new. An

Read more…

Missoni is an Italian brand that is most well-known for the zig-zag patterns that it is using, not to mention the bright colors and mixes. The latest collection of the brand was sold by Target. The interesting thing about this sale is that the items were sold a lot cheaper than usual, and this is something that created a lot of interest among the customers of Target, as well as among the fashion editors.

It looks like this was a really good strategy, since it managed to bring the site of the company down. The new items became available at 6 AM and at 9 AM and the website target.com was already down. Until about 11 AM, the website simply wasn’t usable. L

Read more…

Its a new life. For me. And Im feeling good (great).

I know many of you are worried/upset/mad/concerned/disgusted about my obvious absence from ALU and Im very happy to report that is has come to an end. You see, the last 6+ months have been a real struggle, the past few months being the worst.

Last June, my partner lost his job and to say its been tough would be an understatement. He is a personable, educated man and neither of us expected it to take this long for him to find a new position. We also didnt expect the toll it would take on us both mentally.

Im generally a pretty positive person and way too optimistic thanks to my glass-is-three-quarters-full mother.

Read more…

ROCKING THE TRENDS: Barkers Menswear managing director Jamie Whiting checks out the company’s rock-themed concept store in Manners Mall.

The were one of the best-recognised Kiwi clothing items of the 1990s – the big-bottomed Barkers trackpants that made the menswear clothing chain a household name.

Shoppers bought 50,000 pairs and fought over them in stores, a Facebook page was set up demanding their return, and in recent years limited runs of the treasured casual trousers have been highly popular. <

Read more…

Although you may need to save money on your wedding, there are some elements that you should spend more on.  One of these is your wedding photographs.

Wedding photos are your lasting keepsake of the day and along with a video (should you choose to have one) are some of the few things you will drag out time and time again to show family and friends or to just reminisce over together.  With this in mind you want them to be utterly gorgeous and a true reflection of the wonderful day you had.

The internet is littered with bad wedding photographs and of course most of you will be all too familiar with embarrassing wedding videos courtesy of YouTube!  So unless you want the same ignominy of becoming an internet hit because of your bad wedding photographs, it is wise to allocate a larger portion of your budget to hiring a professional photographer.

Chicago wedding photographers, Essence Photo and Video, say there are four things you need to look for in a wedding photographer –

1. reliability
2. trust
3. talent
4. creativity

These four things are essential when it comes to producing a wedding album that captures all the best bits of your wedding.  These skills may not come cheap but when you compare what an experienced photographer can offer compared to a novice, you will notice the difference.

It can be tempting to ask your uncle to take the photographs simply because he owns a nice camera, and this in itself is fine if he knows how to use it and has experience at taking wedding shots.  However, many who go down the DIY route to save money live to regret it – remember your wedding is a once only occasion, you cannot go back and have your photographs done again if you do not like them!

If you do need to save money though, don’t panic because you can still factor a professional photographer into your day without breaking the bank.  Sit down together and think about the kind of photographs you would like and the style.  Traditional posed pictures are often cheaper because they are easier to take; reportage or fly-on-the-wall photography will require a photographer to be around all day and more often than not there are actually two photographers to ensure all those precious moments are caught on camera.

Most wedding photographers can be hired on a per hour basis so you can hire them to take pictures over a couple of hours during the day.  The most popular option here is to hire a photographer to take shots of you and your maids getting ready including some detail images of your shoes, bouquet and dress and then some formal, posed shots after your ceremony.  You can then ask your guests to take photographs throughout the reception and evening party and share them with you.  Disposable cameras are an option, however most people will have a camera of some kind with them and sending photographs directly to your wedding website is quick and more importantly cheap!

Knowing where to splurge and where to save on your wedding budget is one of the keys to successful wedding planning.  Your photographs need to be the first thing you allocate to the ‘splurge’ list especially if you want beautiful and timeless images.

What do you think? Share your experienc

Read more…